JUNE

Virtue: Faithfulness

“For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in faithfulness to you.” (Psalm 26.3)

Catholic Graduate Expectation: A Discerning Believer

Catholic Social Teaching: Participation

Overview of the Virtue of Faithfulness

Words synonymous with faithfulness are: loyal, true and constant. These adjectives mean adhering firmly and devotedly to someone or something, such as a person, cause, or duty that elicits or demands one’s fidelity.

In the broad scope of spiritual life, we see faith not as something you have but as something you are in — a relationship. Practicing faith, then, is like developing any relationship. You have to give it time and attention. It requires you to see, hear, feel, and constantly remember your partner --God.

Faithfulness and devotion is not ideally something that should be “practiced” only once a week, just on religious holidays, or only in response to a particular event in your life. Faithfulness needs to be part of your daily routine.

A faithful life is one lived in the presence of God. It involves an awareness of God's presence in our

everyday experiences.

Catholic Graduate Expectation -- I AM A BELIEVER

A DISCERNING BELIEVER FORMED IN THE CATHOLIC FAITH COMMUNITY WHO:

Illustrates a basic understanding of the saving story of our Christian faith.

Participates in the sacramental life of the church and demonstrates an understanding of the

centrality of the Eucharist to our Catholic story.

Actively reflects on God's Word as communicated through the Hebrew and Christian

scriptures.

Develops attitudes and values founded on Catholic social teaching and acts to promote social

responsibility, human solidarity and the common good.

Speaks the language of life…"recognizing that life is an unearned gift and that a person

entrusted with life does not own it but that one is called to protect and cherish it." (Witnesses

to Faith)

Seeks intimacy with God and celebrates communion with God, others and creation through

prayer and worship.

Understands that one's purpose or call in life comes from God and strives to discern and live

out this call throughout life's journey.

Respects the faith traditions, world religions and the life-journeys of all people of good will.

Integrates faith with life.

Principles of Catholic Social Teaching

PARTICIPATION

All people have a right to participate in the economic, political and cultural life of society. It is a fundamental

demand of justice and a requirement for human dignity that all people be assured a minimum level of

participation in the community. Conversely, it is wrong for a person or a group to be excluded unfairly or to be

unable to participate in a society.

Witness to Faith

Hildegard Von Bingen

Saint Hildegard of Bingen, O.S.B. (German: Hildegard von Bingen; Latin:

Hildegardis Bingensis) (1098 – 17 September 1179), also known as Saint

Hildegard, and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German writer, composer, philosopher,

Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath. Elected a

magistra by her fellow nuns in 1136, she founded the monasteries of

Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. One of her works as a composer,

the Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of liturgical drama and arguably the

oldest surviving morality play.

She wrote theological, botanical and medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, and poems, while

supervising miniature illuminations in the Rupertsberg manuscript of her first work, Scivias.

Although the history of her formal recognition as a saint is complicated, she has been recognized as a saint by

parts of the Roman Catholic Church for centuries. On 7 October 2012, Pope Benedict XVI named her a Doctor of

the Church.

Reflection Inspired by the Faith of Hildegard Von Bingen

I am the secret Fire in everything,

And everything smells like

Me.

The living breathe in my sweet perfume

And they breathe out praise of Me.

They never die

Because I am their Life.

I flame out

Intense Godly life

Over the shining fields of corn.

I glow in the shimmer of the fire’s embers.

I burn in the sun and the mood and the stars.

My secret life breathes in the wind

And holds all things together soulfully.

This is God’s voice.

-Mary Malone